The night shift was one of the better ones, but I was still glad to see the early shift arrive five minutes early. I told him about the malfunction I’d had (!) and set off homewards.
As I drove the pundits on the radio were spewing drivel (as they so often do). There was an interview with an army chaplain who utterly failed to reconcile the Christian ethic of peace with the soldier’s job of going out and shooting people. This was followed by a church service which was led by a “Yoof Worker”. I was reminded of my time in the Hastings Methodist scene forty years ago. Religious services focussing on the younger generation were frankly dire in the early 1980s and they haven’t improved much in the meantime. After five minutes I turned the radio off.
I got home, and went to bed for the morning. I woke at mid-day to find Fudge had slept with me. As I then scoffed toast so er indoors TM” struggled to get him to eat something. He’d not had any brekkie of his own and turned his nose up at much that was offered to him.
This was an issue in that about one millisecond after Fudge decided he didn’t want his food, Pogo then decided that whatever had been declined was fair game and he scoffed it. Pogo needs to be locked in another room when other dogs are being fed, and he’s not keen on that.
er indoors TM” took the dogs out and I cracked on in the garden. Many years ago when I put shingle up the sides of the garden I got edging blocks to hold the shingle in place. Over the years these blocks have sunk and fallen and now there are no two which are pointing in the same direction. Rather than straightening them all up (yet again) I had this plan to replace them with wooden edges. The wood might not last quite as many years, but being much longer, getting a straight edge is easier, and when any one plank rots it will be easier to replace. (I suspect a future blog entry will lambast that foolish statement!). So… I scraped back the shingle, hoiked out the edging stones and put the first plank in place. In a novel break with tradition I got the spirit level out and checked the thing was straight in all three dimensions before clearing gravel for the second plank and screwing that in place. So easy to type… To be honest it was a simple enough job to do, just rather time consuming. Each plank took about forty minutes to get into place. I got four done this afternoon.
As I pootled in the garden the latest person to take the title of “New Next Door” was revving his motorbike. I’ve been told that his motorbike is an ongoing hobby; he is apparently trying to get the thing going. It sounds like it is going to me, but I have to wonder if it is supposed to smell quite so bad.
“Not-so-nice-next-door” came out into her garden for a bit. She studiously ignored me, and again when she went back indoors I had a little chuckle at the sound of all the locks being fastened. She must have half a dozen locks on her back door. Who does she think is going to break in?
er indoors TM” called me in for coffee and cake; she’d made a rather good honey loaf cake. And with that scoffed I tidied in the garden and got as ready as I could for tomorrow’s garden work. Tomorrow I’m hoping to sort out a shingle bed (bit like a flower bed but with stones) and that entails custom-cut lengths of wood.
I would have liked to have got on with that today, but having been up all night last night was taking its toll. And these garden projects are physically hard work. Just moving the old edging stones off of the lawn and out of the way seemingly took an age.
We had a rather good bit of dinner, and with the family Zoom quiz cancelled we Zoomed at friends instead. It wasn’t quite the same as sitting together shouting at Star Trek videos, but catching up was good.
I’m going to bed in a minute – I’m feeling the night shift I’ve just done, and (much as it sounds daft) I think I caught the sun whilst in the garden earlier…
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